To help solve the persistent and devastating barriers of rural poverty, Maji Safi Group is building WASH Hubs to bring a variety of holistic solutions to impacted Tanzanians – all under one roof. Examples are:
- Providing clean water by establishing water points where people can get clean water at an affordable price rather than going to unprotected, contaminated sources, such as Lake Victoria, ponds, and streams, to fetch water, bathe, or wash clothes and dishes. Improving access to water also reduces the physical burden of carrying heavy loads of water often bestowed upon women and children. Similar projects have seen improved health, increased women’s income, and increased girls’ school attendance.
- Providing help with farming by bringing new technologies, seeds and fertilizers, education, and financing to help people progress from low-level subsistence farming to income-generating practices. Similar small-scale agricultural projects have seen households increase their incomes by nearly 10% due to increased yields. Families enrolled in similar programs have also seen an increase in assets, the creation of new businesses, a decrease in hunger, and an increase in school spending and attendance.
- Providing improved sanitation by offering affordable toilet choices and connecting people to local masons and financing options. Maji Safi Group’s innovative SAFI/SATO Pan design is suitable for schools, workplaces, households, etc. Similar type market-driven sanitation campaigns have catalyzed an increase in latrine construction, which leads to significant decreases in open defecation and diarrheal incidents among children and increases in improved water sources and environmental health.
- Providing disease prevention education using our Community Health Educators’ 10 years of experience teaching about disease transmission, hygiene, and healthy habits to improve personal and public health and replace expensive treatment with effective prevention. Our dedicated and innovative Community Health Educators work in various settings, including large community events where they use singing, dance, and theater to spread health education.
The WASH Hub project was designed by a group of highly qualified professionals worldwide. It was carefully thought out to create a timely and sustainable plan that included working with professional estimators in Tanzania to ensure a realistic, conservative, and achievable budget.
Land for the initial WASH Hub has been purchased, and the construction cost is estimated at USD 320,000. Additionally, the goal is to include USD 80,000 for the first year of salaries for 20 staff members and the cost of the initial inventory of WASH products that will be for sale at the facility.
After the first year, a WASH Hub is expected to become self-funding based on its market-driven nature and the projected income-generating services it will provide.
We expect that our initial and subsequent WASH Hubs will be nice community gathering points for dozens of villages and a valuable resource for reducing poverty, learning more productive technologies, developing better livelihoods through income-generating activities, and improving personal and public health now and for generations to come.
The expectation of WASH Hubs leading to reduced disease rates and improved health is based on solid experience. For almost a decade, Maji Safi Group has put women at the center of improving personal, household, and public health by teaching our Community Health Educators hygiene education and disease prevention through interactive and innovative programs, primarily targeting women and youth. To prove this approach’s impact, we screened many program participants for preventable WASH-related diseases (malaria, amoebas, intestinal worms, and bilharzia). As shown below, the difference in disease rates between people with or without WASH knowledge is astonishing.
